The present invention relates generally to doors for selectively covering specific areas of a housing, and particularly to flexible doors that can conform to a curvilinear portion of a housing while permitting easy access to connectors or other components when the door is in an open position.
In a variety of electronic devices, such as portable computers, doors are used to cover certain open regions of the housing. For example, in a portable computer, a variety of connectors and/or drives may be positioned along an edge of the device. When such components are not in use, either the connectors and/or drives remain exposed or some type of cover is deployed over the housing opening through which such items are accessed.
If the items remain exposed, they may be more susceptible to damage or wear. Additionally, the lack of a door can render the overall look of the device less aesthetically pleasing.
Conventional doors are pivotably mounted along the opening via pivots. For example, axles are sometimes molded into the door and retained in corresponding receptacles formed in the device housing. However, such axles are subject to wear and breakage.
Another problem with conventional doors is difficulty in application along, for instance, an edge of a device that has a substantial curve. For example, if a notebook computer or tablet PC has curved edges, it often is desirable to form a door with a corresponding curve to maintain the uniformity of the edge. However, when such a curved door is opened while the device is at rest upon a surface, the door cannot be sufficiently pivoted to provide non-interfering access to the items, e.g. connectors and/or drives, within the opening. In other words, during opening of the door, the curvature of the door can cause contact with the surface on which the device rests and block further pivoting movement of the door before it is fully displaced from the opening.
The present invention generally relates to a technique for covering openings in an electronic device housing. In some devices, a variety of items, such as connectors and/or drives must be accessible. The door of the present invention, however, allows openings containing such items to be closed when the items are not in use. The exemplary door is formed from a series of panels that are coupled to one another by hinge members. The hinge members allow conformation of the door to a desired curvature when closed while permitting substantial flattening of the door in an open position to facilitate access to the otherwise covered items.